Contact: Emily Zadny, Sports Information Graduate Assistant, 630-637-5302

Box Score vs. Grinnell
Box Score vs. Western New England

ORLANDO, Fla. (Mar. 18, 2019) – The North Central College men's tennis team split a pair of matches on Monday, suffering a 9-0 loss at the hands of Grinnell College (10-2) but rebounded in the evening match with a hard-fought 5-4 victory against Western New England University.

The Pioneers took control of the match early, sweeping the doubles matches, despite a strong effort from Justin Howes and Victor Krueger at the No. 1 position. In singles play, Lucas Pindak scored a win in the first set, defeating George Kaslow 6-4, but fell in the subsequent sets 6-1, 10-5. Tyler Bussell also had a win in the first set at No. 2, but Zach Lane came back to take the second and third, handing the Cardinals their first loss in Orlando.

Pindak and Bussell teamed up at No. 3 doubles later in the day against Western New England's Michael Tran and Max Gordon to give North Central a 1-0 lead following an 8-2 win. Andy Hinch and Tyler Haizel followed suit with a win at No. 2 doubles, defeating Hippolyte Bonnet and Luke Surawski by a score of 8-3. The Golden Bears took the No. 1 match, but Hinch opened singles play with a win at No. 5 to put the Cardinals ahead 3-1. Western New England pulled ahead to leave 4-3 after winning the No. 1, 3, and 6 matches, but Haizel defeated Surawski 6-1, 7-5 at No. 4 before Bussell took Bonnet to three sets and finished with the win for North Central.

North Central (11-3) plays Calvin College in its final match of the trip on Wednesday, Mar. 20 with match time set for 11:30 a.m. (ET).